When an aircraft is grounded at an airport, an off-board ground system operated by an airline may connect with the aircraft to download prior flight information for analysis or upload new data to the aircraft for future flights. A large amount of data of varying degrees of security importance may be exchanged in a relatively short period of time that the aircraft is grounded. To ensure that the aircraft data is securely transferred between validated parties, a user of the ground system connects to the aircraft using a digital certificate to validate the aircraft's identity and authorize the data exchange. However, this approach to authorizing a data exchange with an aircraft is difficult to maintain over time and is limited in its capability to provide efficient and secure authentication, especially when additional cross-checks and/or varying levels of security clearance is desired.